Hey guys. Like the title says, I think the flexplate on my 79 traveler may be warped. Any one ever hear of this? It's a 304/727. While replacing the starter the bendix?(the little gear that engages the flexplate) wouldn't disengage unless I loosened up the bolts and wiggled it loose. While the engine was turning over it looked like the flexplate wasn't flat.
I took the starter back and after testing found out it was bad. Got another one and just installed it. Same thing. Any ideas? Thanks

don't rule out the possiblity of a cracked flex plate around the bolt holes unless the teeth are boogered up the only thing i've ever seen wrong with a flexplate in 40 years has been a crack right around the bolt holes which can cause a number of problems ,unless you had the trans out recently and bent the plate putting it back in ?

make sure the gear on the starter and the flexplate are matched .the starter gear may be bigger by a few thousands bigger which woud make it stick and not want to come out when engaged.sometimes i've had to go to a wrecking yard and get a good used one thats worn out by a few thousands so it matchs the old flex plate .jeep distributor and cam gears on the v-8's are the same way if there not a matched set one of them will destroy itself.

I think the bolts Steve is talking about are the ones that hold it to the crankshaft. It is very common on the 727 trans be it in a chrysler product or an IH to find cracks around those bolts. I'm not sure you can see the cracks without moving the trans and torque converter back so you can get in there. Lets hope you find a problem before that stage. Bruce.

i used to build some long studs to replace the lower trans bolts then slid the whole unit back far enough to get my hand and a wrench in there and change the cracked flex plate .maybe that would be the best way to do it ,buy a new flex plate and a new starter and put them both in then you know they'll match and you don't have to take it all out. used to only take a couple hours ,just make sure to use loctite on the crank bolts.chevy flex plates used to crack more than most out of all the ones i changed back then,plus you don't have to have a tranny jack,when the new flex plate is in just push it forward and it'll line right up on the block pins.

Yes, the one from the pickup will fit. Same starter. The spacer is used with the automatics so that the starters will be the same. It just keeps the starter from hitting the bell housing... and causing binding...

It sounds like the flex plate is warped or the ring is chewed up. I had to have the ring gear flopped on a flywheel once (yes, they come off the flywheel). Try some grease on the teeth and see what happens. I think the flex plate teeth are cast into the assembly, but I haven't looked. Might even be the same part as for the flywheel if it comes off.

most all flywheel ring gear teeth come off to be replaced ,have done lots myself ,but the teeth on a flexplate are welded on so you have to buy a new flex plate to get new teeth .as i said in the last answer the best way to make sure their matched is to replace them and it should work fine .if it was like a chev starter you could just shim it further from the ring gear,but its a plug in like a ford so no adj available, unless you jury rig a shim to move it out and thats not going to help any.with all the time we've spent on the comp.you could have it fixed by now LOL

Steve, You're right I should have had it fixed a week ago. Trying to get some firewood in for next winter.
I swapped the starter from the p/u into the Scout and VOILA!! no binding
Unfortunately the s.o.b. still won't start. Messed around with it for a while but battery finally went buns-up.
Thanks for all your replies and advice.
This site and the people on it are incredible!!